In the typical photographic process, an individual exposes a roll of photographic film and forwards the film to a photofinishing lab whereby it is developed and hard copy prints are produced therefrom. The developed film and hard copy prints are then returned to the customer. Once having received the hard copy prints, it is often desirable to obtain additional prints for oneself or for sharing with others.
Typically this is done by giving the hard copy prints to another individual or by using the returned negative for obtaining additional prints. Using the negative is desirable in obtaining the best possible image as the original images were captured thereon. However, this requires significant amounts of work in that the customer must first bring the negative to a photofinishing store for ordering of additional prints and then take the time to complete the order form. Quite often if a long time has elapsed since the receipt of the film, the negatives are often misplaced or lost and the customer must then use the hard copy prints for obtaining of additional prints.
It has been disclosed in the prior art a system wherein images after they have been developed are scanned digitally for obtaining of a digital record of the images. The digital record of the images are forwarded on to a memory storage database whereby the images are stored and can be accessed by the customer or by authorized individuals. An example is the Kodak PhotoNet Online™ System. While this system has been extremely useful, this requires an individual to be authorized to access to the images and locate the images. Typically, this requires the customer to forward to the third party, a Universal Resource Locator (URL) in the form of a hyperlink for locating only the account containing the images. Additionally, the authorization must be provided with the third party being able to access the database.
Thus, there is a need to provide a system whereby access to the digitally stored images can be easily accomplished while still maintaining secure access to only authorized individuals.